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WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
WORLD HEADQUARTERS
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91123
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
President and Pastor
July 20, 1976
Dear Co-Workers with Christ:
This morning at 5:12 a.m. (Pacific Daylight Time), I sat in
our Ambassador Auditorium here in Pasadena, looking in on Mission
Control headquarters, located only walking distance away, as
scientists manipulated at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) the safe
landing of VIKING I on Mars.
The JPL scientists had cooperated with Ambassador College so
that everything at Mission Control--as the scientists maneuvered
the Mars landing--was shown on a large screen in our auditorium.
We had opened the auditorium to the public. A thousand or more
were there.
I had risen at 3:30 a.m. Many had been watching in the
auditorium from 11:00 p.m. last night. I arrived in the auditorium
just before 5:00 a.m.).
The VIKING I spacecraft is a marvel of mechanical precision.
It landed safely right on schedule at 5:12 a.m. (It actually
landed at 4:53 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, but due to the vast
distance, the signal did not reach Mission Control at Pasadena
until 5:12 a.m.).
Enthusiastic applause--filling the auditorium--greeted the
landing.
Very soon, just before 6:00 a.m., the first strip of two
spectacular pictures arrived. We at the Ambassador Auditorium
were looking in, just as if we were in Mission Control ourselves.
Dr. Thomas Munch, geology professor and leader of the team of
scientists in the Mission Control room, gave a cry of delight as
the first strip of the first picture came through. As strip after
strip of the pictures came through, he was unable to conceal his
excitement. As the strips were pieced together, the scientists
were absolutely amazed at the quality and clarity of the pictures
of the Mars surface--pictures taken perhaps only four or five
feet above the surface. It was just as if a man were standing
there, pointing his camera straight down, taking close-up pictures
of the Mars surface.
Later, the second picture looked out over the landscape to
the horizon. The pictures showed a Martian surface as a sandy
desert littered with rocks--from very minute size up to perhaps
a foot or more in diameter.
But I had to think--it showed precisely what I had expected
from what is revealed from the God of Creation in the Bible. It